The Haka is a pregame ritual for New Zealand sports teams - a posture dance or a kind of war dance that has chanting and slapping of the thighs and chest, glaring, stamping, sticking out the tongue and so on. We can see it as something that can give the team a morale boost while intimidating the other side or we can just see it as a fascinating tradition and leave it at that. Check out this video of the New Zealand team performing the Haka and the reactions of their American opponents:
The Haka appears like a show of strength and unity and the opposing team can feel understandably confused. This is an old video from 2014 when New Zealand (Tall Blacks) took on the Americans at the Basketball World Cup in Bilbao Spain.
If WTF had a face
Like what is it we are looking at?
Maybe the other side just wanted to get on with the playing of the actual sport?
Where’s the dribbling?
Maybe they were thinking about something altogether different?
Maybe the Americans were just impressed? Because this is impressive AF.
Basketball is hugely popular in the US and the Americans did win in the end – many chose to point this out.
While a lot of people were accusing Americans of not knowing about any other culture and having none themselves, others pointed out that the Americans went on to win that world basketball champion.
Here are the Black Caps doing their pregame ritual at the rugby final against the Americans. The Americans clearly seem to be enjoying the ritual.
Rugby is the national sport of New Zealand and is even more popular than cricket. The game is a part of their culture and clearly, their culture (the Haka) is a part of their game as well. The All Blacks are a formidable force on the rugby field. The Americans must have stopped smiling pretty soon. Not only do the New Zealanders perform the Haka spectacularly well, they roundly beat the opposition in this match: the crushed the Americans 104-14.
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